The decline of new England Farms

Somewhere in my junior high school days, (before it was called  "middle school"), a classroom lesson taught  me that the day would come that the entire northeast coast, from Washington D.C to Portland Maine, would be a continuous urban strip.  By steady degrees over many decades, development has, as predicted, converted quiet, pastoral, food producing lands into roads and traffic, endless buildings and parking lots, and a commercial, industrial, and residential strip the length of our coastline states.  Along with the tidal force of more people needing homes, products and services came pollution.  Air, water, soils and food, all tainted with the temptations of dirty methods for making affordable and comfortable standards of living available for many.

There does remain dear memories for many of us, of welcome working landscapes and happy farm families and communities. Many hold the childhood experience of our grandparent's, uncles, neighbors farm experiences of milking cows, collecting eggs, swinging on the barn swing, swimming in the pond, riding ponies and horses, getting the cows back in and fixing the fence.  Chore time was followed by hands on barn and field  projects and best of all, kitchen breakfast, lunch and dinner meals. Sundays were the quiet days.  Church, the paper, the couch and a ball game, and a bowl of ice cream , with seconds and with family.

​It was those days that drew me to farming.  Common sense, when I had it, got me through the problems that got in my way.  My education in Rodale's organic farming bible guided my love for all natural things including growing vegetables.  I touted my healthy growing practices at my farmer's markets and to whole sale customers.  I was proud of my care for our planet and used soil testing and USDA recommendations for fertilizing my soils, always spreading the manure from my cows and chickens to build dark, rich soils.

As resiliency and carbon pollution entered the science of  farming, and all human activity, my interest in sequestering carbon in my  soils and composting for nutrient and carbon sourcing grew.  My understanding of soils and micro organisms also grew.  It's a complex science.  Soils breath.  Some carbon isotopes can be stored in soils while other isotopes form CO2.  Tillage, deep disturbing of top soils is one of the worst sources of air pollution and minimal grooming is the healthiest planting method. 

I also learned the science of composting and trapping both nutrient and carbon values.  Done correctly, I can create soils that will hold more rainwater, will grow better plants and will capture CO2 and other environmental pollutants such as street oils, salts, rubber and brake pad wear and exhaust particles.  Better soils filter and clean water as it heads into streams, brooks and rivers.  Now there are Federal and State farm policy discussions considering the value of soil filtration of  water entering the public water supply and ways to compensate farmers for that public service, Ecological Service Payments. Pepperell farm and back yard manure piles offer soil improvements that will help keep our water clean. There are no known cases of water pollution due to farm operations in Pepperell.   Nor is there science literature studying the environmental risks of backyard farming offered. Both manure and compost piles create their own septic systems and microbes clean water seeping from piles, just like our home septic fields and our waste water treatment facility.  While large animal operations can overwhelm septic and microbe protections , Pepperell does not have any farms of that size.

Farms provide an unmatched quality of life, teach the value of protecting our planet, self sufficiency and provides local healthy foods and traps pollutants and cleans water.

In another round of fighting for the life of farming, the Pepperell Board of Health has fallen into the trap of "more people require more regulation" and "reducing conflict outweighs science based health policy".
Instead of recognizing and promoting the health benefits of commercial and back yard homesteaders farm practices, they are proposing regulations that will reduce the farming activities in Pepperell, a "Right To Farm" community and they create distrust of our town government's ability to act wisely and in the best interest of our families.  This manure regulation sends a message that Pepperell town government is hostile to farms.

More than seventy Pepperell farm supporting citizens have come forward to defend our very reasonable and healthy farm practices.  Parents and especially children love and benefit from their experience caring for chickens, ducks, goats, sheep, ponies and sometimes cows in their back yard.  If the rural qualities of Pepperell and local farms are important to you, please attend tonights Joint Board of Health and Agricultural Commission Meeting at 6:30 at the Albert Harris Senior Center  and ask the Board of Health to withdraw it's hostile farm regulation proposal.